Franklin Pierce - US President 1853–57. The 14th head of state was not able to effectively deal with disagreements over slavery in the decade preceding the US Civil War of 1861–65.
Early life and career
Born 11/23/1804 in Hillsboro, New Hampshire, USA. His parents were Anna Kendrick and New Hampshire Governor Pierce Benjamin. Franklin Pierce studied at Bowden College in Maine, studied law in Northampton, Massachusetts, and received his law degree in 1827. In 1834, he married Jane Appleton, whose father was President Bowdin and a prominent Whig. The spouses had three sons who died in childhood.
Pierce Franklin entered the political life of New Hampshire as a Democrat and worked in the State Legislature (1829–33), the United States House of Representatives (1833–37) and the Senate (1837–42). Beautiful, courteous, charming, outward-looking, Pierce found many friends in Congress, but his career was otherwise unremarkable. He was a loyal supporter of President Andrew Jackson, but he was constantly accentuated by senior and better-known politicians. After retiring from the Senate for personal reasons, he returned to Concord, where he resumed his legal practice, and also held the position of federal district attorney.
Presidential nomination
With the exception of short-term service as an officer during the Mexican-American War (1846-48), Pierce remained out of the public eye until the National Congress of the Democratic Party in 1852. Following a stalemate among supporters of leading presidential contenders Lewis Kesas, Stephen Douglas and James Buchanan, a coalition of New England and Southern delegates nominated Young Hickory (Andrew Jackson was known as Old Hickory), and Pierce Franklin was nominated for the 49th National Convention The Democratic Party of 1852. The unfolding presidential campaign was dominated by disputes over slavery and the compromise of 1850. Although both Democrats and Whigs declared themselves his supporters, the former proved to be more organized.
Franklin Pierce - President
As a result, a candidate almost unknown at the national level unexpectedly won the November election, ahead of the Whig candidate Winfield Scott in the electoral college with 254 votes to 42. Franklin Pierce's triumph was overshadowed by the tragedy that occurred a few weeks before his inauguration when he and his wife witnessed the death of their only surviving child on the railway, 11-year-old Benny. Jane, who always opposed her husband’s candidacy, never completely recovered from the shock.
At the time of his election, Pierce was 47 years old. He became the youngest president in US history. Representing the eastern faction of the Democratic Party, which for the sake of harmony and prosperity of business did not support the anti-slave trade and tried to calm the southerners, Pierce Franklin strove to achieve unity by introducing into his cabinet the adherents of the extreme positions of both sides.
Foreign policy
The president also tried to get away from tough contradictions by ambitiously and aggressively promoting the expansion of the territorial and commercial interests of the United States abroad. In an effort to acquire the island of Cuba, he ordered the US ambassador to Spain to try to ensure the influence of European financiers on the government of this country. As a result, in October 1854, a diplomatic statement appeared, known as the Ostend manifesto. It was perceived by the American public as a call, if necessary, to tear Cuba out of Spanish rule by force. The disagreement that followed led the administration to relinquish responsibility for the document and recall the ambassador.
In 1855, the American adventurer William Walker made an expedition to Central America with the hope of establishing a United States-controlled government that supported slavery. In Nicaragua, he proclaimed himself a military dictator, and then president, and his dubious regime was recognized by the Pierce administration.
A more sustained diplomatic success awaited an expedition led by Matthew Perry, sent in 1853 by President Millard Fillmore to Japan. In 1854, Pierce Franklin received a report from Perry that his expedition was successful and US ships limited access to Japanese ports.
The presidential administration also reorganized the diplomatic and consular services and created a claim court.
Domestic policy
Pierce was preparing for the construction of the transcontinental railway and the opening of the northwestern United States for settlement. In 1853, with the aim of organizing the southern route to California, the United States envoy to Mexico, James Gadsden, agreed to purchase almost 30 thousand square meters. miles of territory for $ 10 million. In 1854, Pierce signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act to stimulate northwest migration and facilitate the construction of a central route to the Pacific Ocean. This measure, thanks to which two new regions were opened for settlement, included the cancellation of the Missouri compromise of 1820, which determined the prohibition of slavery above 36 ° 30 'north latitude, and the condition that the free or slaveholding status of the territory should be determined by the local population. This law provoked outrage and an armed conflict began in Kansas, which became the main reason for the growth of the Republican Party in the mid-1850s.
